1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to processing electronic commerce transactions.
2. Background Art
Current electronic commerce systems often lack in user-friendliness, security, and merchant-friendly features. Problems include slow navigation, dissimilar web and mobile interfaces, requiring users to download applications, requiring every user of the system to have an account on the electronic commerce system and a bank account, lack of support for in-store product sales, limited withdrawal and deposit options, limited access device options for users, use of email accounts for verifying account creation, and each user being required to create and manage separate online bank accounts and investment accounts for each financial entity with whom she has accounts.
In conventional electronic commerce systems, users are often required to traverse a complex web of pull-down menus and page navigations to enroll and then interact with the commerce system. A series of complex menus would slow user interaction. It is also frequently required that the user downloads an application to the user access device for the specific purpose of interacting with the electronic commerce system. Having a user install an application for each merchant or other entity with whom the user wants to transact with is cumbersome and may discourage user participation in such electronic commerce systems.
Moreover, by requiring that any merchant who receives payments from the electronic commerce system maintains an account in the transaction server, conventional electronic commerce systems discourage many merchants from participating in the system. Other impediments to merchant participation in these conventional systems include that lack of support for existing point of sale (POS) devices, disallowing users to transfer funds directly to merchants, and the like.
Additionally, conventional venue-based mobile electronic commerce systems suffer from imprecise location and boundary detection, limited range, and lack of on device enablers for venue-based applications. These weaknesses, among others, of the conventional systems hamper the growth of mobile electronic commerce systems.
Thus, with conventional electronic commerce systems, there are no perceivable cost or speed differentiators for merchants to use such commerce options versus credit cards, and no current systems promise mass consumer mobile commerce adoption. Moreover, for users or consumers, the conventional electronic commerce systems do not offer compelling advantages over conventional interactions with the web sites of each individual merchant. Thus, it is desired to have electronic commerce systems that address at least the above noted shortcomings of the conventional electronic commerce systems.